Jets wreck havoc on Bills again

By Rick Anderson

Jets running back Curtis Martin soars over the Bills. Here he jumps over Bills safety Pierson Prioleau on his way for an 11-yard pickup and a first down.

[AP Photo/Bill Kostroun]

Has the league caught on to Drew Bledsoe? Or has he just come back down to earth. It's a little of both as Bledsoe continued to be play way below the high standard he set in the beginning of the season as his mediocre performance helped the New York Jets blast the Bills 31-13. The Jets swept the season series with the Bills 2-0 and this game wasn't anywhere as close as the season opener when the it took overtime to decide it.

Bledsoe has not been as accurate the past few games as he was in the beginning of the season when he set the league on fire. Now his passes aren't reaching their mark as often and he is having his passes picked off with more frequency. That was the case Sunday as the Jets came up with two of Bledsoe's passes and made his life miserable the whole afternoon in East Rutherford as he was also sacked twice and fumbled once. He completed 21 out of 23 for a mere 181 yards and no touchdowns. Certainly not the kind of game that Bledsoe had at the beginning of the year. That leads to this question: Has the league caught up to Bledsoe? It seems that defenses have found ways to stop the formerly hottest QB going in the league.

Jets in high gear

Chad Pennington had the Jets at full throttle and never let up on the Bills until near game's end. Pennington was outstanding in finding his receivers and picking on league's favorite mark, Chris Watson. Pennington completed 15 out of 24 for 178 yards and one touchdown. He also had a one-yard scamper for a score in which he faked Bills linebacker Eddie Robinson out of his shorts. The play came when it appeared as if the Bills were going to hold the Jets on a 4th down try from the Bills 1. Pennington rolled to his left but Robinson was closing on him. The Jets quarterback hesitated when Robinson was bearing down on him, then broke to the endzone, leaving a fallen Robinson in his wake.

"It wasn't pretty," admitted Pennington about his attempt to imitate Barry Sanders. "I think the move was so bad, he'd never seen it before, so he kind of fell down. He had the angle on me, I was just trying to do something and find a way to get into the end zone. It was a disgrace to the quarterback position that has Donovan McNabb and Michael Vick.''

Robinson, who has not lived up to expectations, talked about his major gaffe.

"It's a play-action fake and he made a good move cutting back," acknowledged Robinson. "But it's not like you're on the 50-yard line where you have a chance to leverage the sideline. You leverage the sideline in that situation and it's a touchdown."

Not only was Pennington hot against the Bills, but old nemesis Curtis Martin had a hey day, running for 120 yards on 21 carries and one touchdown. The Bills defense once again was missing tackles and committing bad penalties, just like the game before in Kansas City.

The Jets took a 17-3 lead into halftime on touchdown runs by Lamont Jordan(1 yard) and Curtis Martin (9 yards) along with a 23-yard John Hall field goal.

Henry best Bill on field

The Bills had opened the game driving down the field but had to settle for a 43-yard field goal by Mike Hollis. His kick hit the crossbar and bounced behind it for the 3 points. Those were the last points Buffalo would score until Travis Henry capped a 9-play, 69 yard drive by scoring from one yard out.

Henry had the best game of all the Bills, running for 83 yards on 17 carries. He also led the receivers with 7 grabs for 43 yards. The Bills are using Henry more an more as an all-purpose back and it is paying big dividends. Now they have to get their passing game back on track.

"We just weren't clicking on offense," admitted Henry. "We're not finishing drives like we were doing early in the season, and I don't have the answer."

Bledsoe has to get his accuracy back. Against KC, several of his bad throws may have cost the Bills the game. Against the Jets, he had two picks, but one was a when Jay Riemersma deflected a pass he should have caught and Sam Garnes gathered it in on the Jets 49. Aaron Beasley picked off a second Bledsoe pass when he flew in front of Peerless Price and ran back 5 yards to the Jets 42. That started out a 7-play touchdown drive which was capped by a 9-yard run by Martin.

The Bills at 5-6, now find themselves at the bottom of the AFC Eastern division. With only 5 games to go, they must win every one to even have a chance to make the playoffs. That chance is as slim as their defense pitching a shutout.

Bills Talk

The Bills continued to shoot themselves in the foot at the most opportune times. A prime example was when the Bills forced the Jets to kick a field goal and then Watson got a roughing the kicker penalty, giving the Jets a first and goal at the Bills 4. The Jets then went on to score a touchdown, making the score 10-3.

"I just know once I jumped in the air, I couldn't stop," explained Watson. "I thought I had a good chance to block it, but I didn't. It was a bad play on my part. I took a chance and I blew it. It hurt our team and hurt our chances of winning the game."

Bills coach Gregg Williams was besides himself about that bonehead play.

"There's no excuse for that type of play," fumed Williams. "We've got them stopped, kicking a field goal. He knows that. We improved in that area today, but not enough. That's a tough play to swallow."

Williams was also unhappy with the missed tackles by the defense.

"We committed to the run," Williams said. "We had people down around the line of scrimmage but they were able to power through and make some good plays."

Antoine Winfield talked about the shoddy tackling.

"We missed a lot of tackles," said Winfield. "We gave up too many third downs. We didn't give our offense a chance to get on the field and make some plays."

"They were getting too many yards on first down, so on second and third down they can run the draw," added Pat Williams. "That can't happen."

Watson, who has felt the brunt of not only everyone's aerial game, but of jokes, and has had a very frustrating season.

"We didn't execute well enough to win," acknowledged Watson. "That's been a problem all year. When we have a chance to make plays we have to take advantage of it. I have to take it upon myself to play better personally. I'm not one to make excuses. I know I have to play better."

Veteran fullback Larry Centers has been around both winners and losers in his highly successful career. He is none to happy with what he sees on this team.

"One thing that's really killing us right now is making the bonehead mistakes at critical times," fumed Centers."We've tried to find a way to correct that problem, but obviously we have to continue to preach that and hopefully somebody will hear it."

Copyright © 2002 Bills Thunder & Rick Anderson, all rights reserved.